A Knight's True Wish
by ZilverHope
Summary: She was the king of Britain, he was just a man that can shoot a bow, their meeting was destiny. Yet if they wish to hold onto each other they will have to face the many hardships that come with forbidden love. (Artoria X MC)
1. Chapter 1: A Stranger

**Hello and welcome to a new project of mine, titled 'A Knight's True Wish'**

 **This one is a bit different than my other fiction about the Fate universe and has a concept that I don't think many Fate fictions have.**

 **First and foremost, there isn't any grail war going on, this is a romance story between Artoria Pendragon and an OC.**

 **I know OC characters are always a hit or miss but I do hope I do this right, I have a good feeling about what I came up with.**

 **Now enough babbling, enjoy the story! (PS: Mordred isn't born yet and Artoria has Caliburn, not Excaliber.)**

 ** _A Knight's True Wish_**

 ** _Chapter 1: A Stranger_**

* * *

"And thus, the merchant demands compensation."

Yet another complaint about a drunken soldier who wreaked havoc around the city's marketplace, with how often this is starting to happen the king has begun to expect such stories from every report.

"And compensation he shall receive," announced the king. "Give the merchant fifty silver coins and punish the solider."

"It will be done, my lord." Said the deep and calm voice of Agravain.

"That is enough from your report for now, we shall continue this later." The king said but soon added. "Does anyone require an audience with me?"

"Only a few farmers that wish to complain, most likely." Said the king's steward.

The words caused the king to sigh before motioning for the castle gated to open. They were exhausted and wished to retire but being a king comes first, it was their duty to listen to the people's cries.

A sliver of relief ran through the king's cold heart upon seeing only four people come in. This was thankfully bound to end quickly.

The first was just as expected, a farmer, he begged for a small amount of money for his sick son and promised to repay upon harvesting and though the steward advised against it the king decided to spare two whole gold pieces, shocking the farmer in the process. With so much money he would undoubtedly get the best medicine for his son.

the second was a tavern-keeper, begging for justice to be served on a company of soldiers that wrecked her tavern and ruined her business. Artoria pinned a mental note to include more disciplinary training for the soldiers as she handed the woman a sack of copper pieces to repair her tavern and restock it.

the third man though was different, he walked forward and bowed to his king as respect, one knee on the ground and a hand resting on the other. He had a hood sewed into his dark tunic that covered his head and most of his face.

"Rise," The man complied immediately and his king spoke again. "What brings you here?"

the man's hand moved up to take off his hood.

And thus he revealed his long brown hair, it was long enough to almost surpass his shoulder. And it also revealed his sky-blue eyes and a light beard.

"Not much,"He quickly answered, drawing confusion on the king's face. "Instead, I just hoped to see you, my lord."

That was definitely a first... and even though it was slightly interesting, the king had more pressing matters to attend to. "And so you did, I hope you're satisfied but I have matters to attend to." The king said.

The man immediately stepped aside and spoke. "Of course." He said as he bowed and took his leave.

"I think you should have ordered that man to be whipped." Agravain scowled as he said so.

He was always so strict and straightforward with his advice which with all due fairness was a fact that had its merits but it also had its flaws.

"That is unneeded, dear Agravain, for he broke no laws and showed no disrespect."

Agravain glowered. "I'd hardly call that respectful."

...

...

The king of Britain had finally retired back to their bedroom, exhausted but not willing to admit it.

By now the moon has fully risen and most of the honest townfolk had returned to their homes. The king ordered that a party of the older and wiser guards patrol the streets of Camelot to make sure that no more drunken soldiers can make a mess.

While the king never cared for their gender they still admitted to possessing the body of a woman and since none would dare to enter their quarters without permission the king felt safe enough to sleep with clothes that comfort her body.

And so they changed into a pure white velvet robe instead of the armor they had been wearing And made their way to the bed. Gunivere was attending a foreign wedding and wasn't expected to return for at least a month and a half.

Though the king was not worried since with her was a company of knights led by Sir Lancelot himself. She would not need more protection.

The king gently lifted the warm covers and slipped under them, her head rested on the soft pillow as she closed her eyes.

Unlike most nights, they had a hard time falling asleep even with how exhausted they were.

That in itself did not bother her. In fact, the only thing bothering her was the reason why she wasn't falling asleep.

It was almost petty.

She found herself thinking about the man. The one that came to the castle only to see her.

For some reason, she could remember his face as if she was looking at it at this very moment. She felt slight regret for not asking his name but it was already too late.

The king sighed inwardly, they noticed that the candle in the room had almost run out even though it was full when she lit it.

She sighed as she realized she had probably been thinking about him for the better part of the last hour... strange.

She blew out the candle and tried to force her mind to stop thinking as she closed her eyes, tomorrow was bound to be tiring and she needed the rest.

...

...

"My king, may God bless you with a safe journey!" Was a line amongst the many the king heard as they and a small company of knights on horseback rode through Camelot.

The king had a quest that must be accomplished, while Gunivere was busy attending a wedding in a foreign kingdom the king would do the same with another kingdom. These acts of goodwill could be the key to maintaining peace for the year.

The Once and Future king noticed that a mother had her small son lifted in her arms, the boy had his hand extended and a flower in hand.

The king held out her hand as she slowly rode past them and took the flower. It was a white tulip. She stuck it in between her hilt and her holy sword.

Time went on, the king and knights were now in the countryside. Sadly though, none of the knights were from the Round Table as each of them was engaged in another task so they couldn't accompany the king. It got to the point that Bedivere had offered to drop any quests he needed to attend to so he can accompany his king.

But of course, she rejected, mostly because she didn't need much aid, the knights she took with her were more than enough to attend a simple wedding.

After a while, the king decided it was time to rest the horses and so they set camp in the forest, they were still in a friendly territory so there wasn't too much of a need to keep their guard up.

It was almost evening and the king wrapped themselves with their blue cloak, the fur reaching her neck warming her. She found one of the older knights sitting on a chopped down tree close to the fire they started.

She believed that she remembers his name. "Sir Lern?" Damn it, she didn't mean for it to sound like a question.

He looked up, his eyes had a comforting feel to them. "Close, it is Lerno. My king." He said it in a way that made it sound like a light-hearted jest.

"Of course, I am sorry." The king said. She soon added. "May I sit next to you?"

The knight immediately smiled. "Of course! It would be an honor." He made space for his liege to sit as he said so.

The king sat and examined her surroundings after setting Caliburn on the ground next to her. She hated to admit but she didn't know the names of a lot of these knights

"Do you have children, Sir Lern...o?" She almost said his name wrong again.

It seemed like he noticed it as he chuckled. "No, my wife passed away from sickness when I was just a squire... I loved her dearly and never remarried." His face looked slightly grief-stricken.

"I am sorry for your loss..." Was all the king managed to say. She might seem emotionless but she still had a heart. Only it rarely shows.

"Bah, love is a weird thing." He said. "It is both a blessing and a curse. A loyal dog and an ungrateful venomous serpent." He paused. "A loyal companion and a Treacherous assassin."

That was a... unique explanation.

"But enough about that." He grabbed two rabbits that were cooked on the fire. He handed one to the king, impaled on a stick.

"Thank you." She murmured as she took it. It looked cooked well enough and she was, in fact, starving.

The king ripped off the leg. the insides were dry and not full of juice but it wasn't like she complained.

She bit into the meat, juices sprayed all over her face. Strange, it had some juice after all.

She turned around to ask for a towel from the knight next to her.

Only to be met with a blood-freezing sight.

The knight sitting next to her had an arrow sticking out of their neck. The juice that sprayed over her face was his blood.

Without even thinking she found herself reaching for Caliburn... only it wasn't there.

She tilted her head upward only to barely make out the shape of a leg as a hard boot kicked her in the face. The impact strong enough that she fell to the ground.

It followed by intense dizziness but she could make out the sound of knights running to her aid. With her blurry vision, she looked at them.

The situation though. Was nowhere near over.

Her vision straightened and she noticed the carnage start. Not between her soldiers and whoever attacked her but between her soldiers and themselves.

The soldiers in the backlines started backstabbing the ones in front.

She winced from the pain in her head and screamed in her mind as she realized why she did not remember the names of some of her knights.

It's because she never knew them! They were assassins in disguise!

It all happened so fast. With her soldiers surprised, surrounded and betrayed... they never stood a chance.

And that's not even counting the fact that they were ill-prepared for such an attack since they were still in friendly lands.

Her heart dropped as she saw the last of her real knights fall. He was Called Ishnes. Her loyal bodyguard for five years. If they managed to take him down this fast then these assassins were not cheap but probably insanely expensive. Not anyone can beat that man even when he is outnumbered.

She started counting her enemies. Her soldiers managed to bring their numbers down to twelve. One of whom visibly had Caliburn in his hand.

They all laughed as they made their way to the king. She unhilted the sword of the fallen knight next to her. Swearing to avenge her men, she charged at the assassins.

Sadly, she forgot to count the two enemies behind her.

As she ran she suddenly lost balance and was flung to the ground and dropped the sword. She felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder and cursed upon realizing that she had been hit with an arrow.

Her arms were quickly pinned to the ground by the assassins. "Let go of me you rascals!" She demanded but it was to no avail.

Her eyes shut unwillingly as the man wielding Caliburn came out of nowhere and stabbed her thigh with her own sword.

She gritted her teeth and bit the inside of her mouth. The pain was intense and the shock made it worse.

But it wasn't over, the sick bastard started twitching with the sword and digging deeper with it into her thigh, that's when the yells and screams she had contained inside burst out all at once.

The sick pigs were enjoying this! She thought, her eyes still closed because of the pain.

And finally. The sword stopped twitching in her leg, her yells calmed as she opened her eyes.

The man who stole her sword, he had an arrow piercing his chest!

Not only that, the others, one after the another they started getting picked off as well. The speed that the arrows were being fired at indicated only one person shooting but the precision and accuracy were near perfection.

The assassins started running amok like wild deer until they were no more.

The king's vision was getting blurry and she started fading into unconsciousness but before that, she could make out a pair of hands moving towards her way and felt herself being lifted off the ground.

The last thing she saw was a pair of sky-blue eyes.

...

...

Her eyes snapped open, what in the world?

She had vague memories of what happened... they were ambushed, betrayed and cut down within a minute.

But she somehow survived.

More memories came back to her. The reason for her survival was most likely related to the arrows fired before she fell unconscious.

A sudden surge of pain reminded her of the wound in her thigh. Curse those rascals!

Deciding to keep their composure, the king examined the surrounding area.

She was only a few steps away from where the battle took place. Some of her men were still lying in the same place but she quickly figured out that most were buried thanks to the bumps coming out of the ground and the obvious decrease in the number of bodies.

She herself was set against a tree. Looking at herself. Her clothes were torn and the armor above them was in horrible shape.

The torn parts on her clothes only revealed her arrow wound and thigh wound. Someone has been treating her wounds.

She slowly staggered to her feet, how long has it been? She felt like she hadn't moved in years and her throat was drier than a desert.

"King Arthur!" A shocked yet familiar voice rang out.

Her eyes quickly made out the face of Ishnes, he survived!

For a moment, the king felt relieved. "Ishnes, You survived!"

The bodyguard dropped the sack in his hand and ran up to his liege.

"But how? I saw you get stabbed in the chest." She said with awe as he made his way to her.

And just like everything else that happened recently, her hopes suddenly shattered.

She saw as an arrow hit him in the head, her eyes, as if with pure instinct, located the shooter of the arrow.

She only had enough time to see that he was wearing a mask before she ran up behind a tree for cover.

She winced from pain, she stepped too hard and too fast, her wound opened up again.

"It's all right. I'm not shooting any more arrows." She heard a male voice coming from the other side of the tree.

Was he making fun of her? Her blood started boiling at that thought. He even killed her Bodyguard right in front of her eyes!

"Look, I know this might sound weird, but that is not your friend- err... knight." the man called out again. "Just look at him." He added with a sigh.

Her eyes switched to the fallen man, obviously fully expecting to see him dead.

But again, everything seemed to turn from bad to worse. Or in this case, weird to weirder.

"See?" The male voice said... wait, why did he sound so smug?

Instead of Ishnes lying dead on the ground, she found a woman wearing a black cloak dead in his place.

"Who are you?" The king asked with an authoritative tone to her voice.

"Just a man, really. I don't think anything about me would interest you." He said, for some reason, it felt like he genuinely believed what he just said.

Artoria was confused, she knew some people are calm but this man is speaking way too casually for the situation they were in. It was almost annoying.

Silence rang for a few moments as The injured king thought about what she should say.

Was this the part when she needed to ask him the 'How do I know that I can trust you' question? Because with all due honesty, everything was pretty obvious. He was probably the man who saved her.

She just had one more thing to ask though.

"This woman, she appeared as if she was my bodyguard...how?"

Thinking about it, her question did have some meaning to it but he still thought she'd have already known.

"Magus." He said, almost hatefully. "She's a Magus, a user of magic. She used an illusion spell of some kind."

"And you saw through her spell?"

"No, actually. I just remembered the face of the man she was appearing as because I had already buried him."

It did make sense, she admitted it. And she knew that mages were real thanks to Merlin but the possibility of the assassins being mages still did not cross her mind until now. But with that aside, she heard the footsteps of the man, he just got closer to the tree.

"I'm going to show myself now. No bow in my hand so please don't hit me." He said. Artoria's eyes quickly fixed on the side of the tree she felt he would appear from.

She saw his hand first, he was holding something wooden! The liar had his bow!

With those thoughts, Artoria saw as her arm jerked forward. Her hand meeting the man straight in the forehead.

Damn, that sounded like it hurt. Her steel gauntlets probably made everything ten times worse.

The man immediately covered his forehead with his hands and groaned from the pain after dropping whatever was in his hand.

Her heart filled with a bit of regret as she realized that he only had a small log in his hand that she mistook for the bow.

"I thought I just said don't hit me!" He said with a loud voice.

"I apologize... I had thought you lied." Was what she had to say as she slightly clenched the fist she just punched him with.

"No no, it's fine. I'm an idiot for not dropping the wood." He explained.

She felt a bit bad, especially after punching him so hard but she agreed, that was a stupid action from him.

Although he was wearing a mask that covered most of his features, she still noticed the frustration he felt from the movement of his eyes.

He heaved a heavy sigh. "Seriously... I leave you for a few minutes to find some wood and then all this happens." He picked up the log from the ground as he said so.

Artoria could only say one thing. "I appreciate what you've done but I'm not your burden to bear, I can get back to the city on my own." Was her reply, she added. "Where is my horse?"

The man looked at her for a moment. "The horses ran away during the ambush."

He then looked at her leg. "Yeah... I'm not letting you go with a wound like that."

Before she could reply, the man ducked down and examined her wound.

With the way he was speaking and acting she was starting to wonder if he knew who he was talking to.

"This is not good. The wound opened up again." He said, getting up on his feet as he did.

"Come on, we need to patch this up."

...

...

"Ack!" She tried to contain her groans but it hurt too much. It felt like the needles were on fire!

"Sorry, Just a few more and we're done." He reminded.

She'd have stitched herself up if she knew how to but he was doing a much better job at it than what she'd ever manage to.

"Come on, talk to me, it's better than focusing on the pain." He soon added.

So far he seems like he's on her side, in fact, he had all the time he needed to kidnap or even kill her when she was unconscious and he didn't.

But even if she can put her trust in him she couldn't stop wondering how he is speaking to her so casually. Does he actually not know who she is?

"Do you know who I am?" She wondered. The man immediately chuckled.

"Yes, you're our king." He said, still concentrating on the wound.

Artoria had to bite the inside of her mouth to keep it closed as he kept stitching her thigh.

"Why'd you help me?" She managed to ask.

"Can't- no, shouldn't a man help his king?"

Fair enough, it made sense.

But he wasn't finished. "Besides, I owe you one." He said softly.

Before she could ask for a better explanation he got up to his feet and stretched his hands forward.

"And we're done." She watched him say and then noticed him handing a sack over to her. "I managed to sew you some clothes when you were asleep, oh, and your sword is in there as well."

With the mention of her sword, Artoria quickly opened the sack and indeed found it alongside some clothes.

"There's a lake you can bathe in, come, I'll take you there." He said, Artoria followed with care to not open up her wound again.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed, please review!**

 ** _Much Love! Stay Hopeful! ZilverHope Out!_**


	2. Chapter 2: Le Lac

**Welcome back! Here's the second chapter of this story, thanks a lot for the support on the first chapter, OC stories usually do badly but I'm glad people like this. I have some really wonderful ideas for this story so stay tuned!**

 _ **A Knight's True Wish**_

 _ **Chapter 2: Le Lac**_

* * *

Too deep, way too deep.

That was all she could think of.

Not many- actually. Nobody in her kingdom knew this but Arturia could not swim.

The lake did look beautiful though, the water was clear and she could spot small fishes scurrying about, the sun was also just starting to set and the dim orange light that reflected off of the water only made it look better.

The sound of birds chirping was progressively getting louder as they prepared to sleep in their nests.

Her attention turned towards the man as she saw him take a small step in the water, it reached high enough only to surpass his heel. He was also still wearing all of his clothes, all made of seemingly cheap material, even the slightly tattered gloves he was wearing. But it was still enough to make the only visible feature about him his eyes.

"It's pretty warm right now but I would advise going in before it gets dark or it will be freezing." He said as he stepped out of the water. "I think I'll find us something to eat, you're still wounded so please call out if something happens."

He walked past her and crouched to take his quiver of arrows that was leaning against a tree.

"Wait." He heard the king say, he turned around to face them.

"Is something wrong?" He asked as he attached his quiver to his back.

Her cheeks had a hint of red on them. "I- uh." Damn it, this was so hard and humiliating to say! "Is there a lake that is... less deep?" She said, it didn't help at all when his first reaction was his eyes widening.

"I eh... no, not that I know of." Seriously?! The king couldn't swim?!

He kept his eyes fixed on the king for a moment before sighing and taking off his quiver.

"What are you doing?" Asked Arturia as she watched him continue, he didn't answer before taking his mask off.

"I can help you." He said, even behind the beard and long hair that were let loose upon taking off his mask she could notice the red on his face.

The man took off everything but his tunic pants and noticed that the king had been staring at him the whole time, damn it! Was there some sort of royal law that says this is illegal?

Taking your clothes off in front of the king wasn't that big of a deal...Right?

"Erm... so?" The man said, snapping Arturia out of her thoughts. Damn it! She was stuck in a deathtrap now, taking off her clothes means him noticing that she had the body of a woman but saying no after he took off his clothes is... ugh! This was frustrating!

She decided, after thinking carefully, to only take off her armor and leave the clothes under It on.

And so she did, and so she noticed the man staring at her with his eyes wide open.

There was but one thing that the man's eyes made up more than any else, at first, he did not understand why but the king's chest was... pushing off the shirt he was wearing.

His mind automatically put the pieces of the puzzle together, he had heard the rumors, the rumors about the king being an incredibly handsome young man, but oh god, the rumors could not be more off about the truth!

"Y-you're a woman?!"

...

She had done her best to explain it but it wasn't going through his head, why couldn't he simply accept that she cares not for her gender?

She had enough of trying to convince him and sighed, he was too adamant. "Fine, if you do not want to accept it then I need something else from you." Her face grew more serious than he imagined it could as she said those words.

But he himself had a headache from how complicated this got, a woman as a king? That woman thinks she's a man?

"Under no circumstances, could you ever reveal the reality of my physical body. That is an order towards you by your king, understand?"

The man nodded almost immediately and then spoke. "Yes, you didn't need to tell me in the first place, besides, I do owe you anyway." He said.

There he goes again about owing her something, he looked familiar but she knew nobody owed her anything.

He spoke again before she could. "With all that aside, it is getting dark so let's hurry up." He dived feet first into the lake and extended a hand after swimming back to the surface, his face was noticeably turned to face the water instead of the king. Obviously, he grew more embarrassed upon realizing she's a woman.

Had she been able to see his face she would have noticed that it was as red as hers. She moved her hand and slowly grabbed his, this was definitely embarrassing and not something she'd ever normally do... but damn it, her body felt too tense and a bath was probably one of the best ways to fix that. Even if she still had her clothes on.

And so she pushed herself off the edge and into the lake, his arms immediately hardened as not to let her head go underwater.

It was still mostly warm but the water was definitely edging more to the cold than hot, they didn't have much time.

The man's brain was overflowing, here he was, helping a beautiful lady swim, and that lady was the Queen- err. King, damn it, this was so confusing!

Arturia, on the other hand, was actually quite surprised, in a good way too!

This had been her first time swimming, and if she were to be honest, this was amazing! It felt as if she was flying but with one hand being held by the man and the other holding tightly onto the edge of the lake.

"Do you want to go a bit further in?" The man asked, he sounded as smug as ever! What was that about?

She winced inwardly as she realized that her hand was holding onto the edge of the lake with force enough to slightly dig into the dirt.

She wasn't about to reject a challenge though!

"Yes, let's go." She said, the man snickered and started pulling her away from the edge and she was forced to let go of it.

And that was when her heart dropped.

Now, not having solid land to grab onto and completely relying on the man to not let go of her made her heart race and swimming was suddenly a lot less peaceful.

And within but a moment, she panicked and lunged herself to hold his shoulder tightly with both hands.

"Ow- ow! Easy, you're gonna drown me too!" He said.

Not realizing that he was merely joking because of the panic, she panicked even more and didn't know what to do, and now her body decided to let go of him as not to drown both of them together.

Her eyes snapped shut as she started sinking.

Thankfully though, it didn't take long to feel the man's hands pull her up and drag her towards him.

When she re-surfaced and opened her eyes, she found out that he had swum back to the edge of the lake with her. She grabbed onto the land as if her life depended on it and the man beside her started laughing. "I think we should just stay here." He said, and this time, she agreed.

She took her time to catch her breath and steady her breathing and then spoke. "I had a question." She explained, the man looked at her curiously, what could a king have to ask of him?

"You've told me that you owe me multiple times, but I remember nothing of the like, in fact, I don't know anyone that owes me anything."

Instead of getting a reply to her question, she saw the man's hand move up and his index finger resting in front of his mouth, indicating for her to not speak, he then pointed at something behind her.

She slowly turned around and spotted exactly what he pointed at in but a second. About thirty meters away from them, a bear was coming to the lake.

She turned around to face the man again and found him slowly leaving the lake, as soon as he got out he extended a hand and helped her out.

By now, the bear was in the lake and she noticed how it was fishing. The man next to her slowly grabbed his bow and whispered. "Looks like our food had come to us by itself." He pulled an arrow out of his quiver and carefully lined up the shot.

This was dangerous, this was a bear and not a deer or some other animal. If the arrow doesn't hit something vital then it will come charging at them.

Sadly though, the arrow was already flying towards the bear before she could protest. Though surprisingly and impressively enough, she saw the arrow go straight into the bear's skull and it immediately dropped dead.

...

"This tastes really weird..." The man broke the silence that the two of them were in, they had started a fire and cooked nothing other than bear meat, Arturia had refrained from complaining but nodded as she saw his own dissatisfaction, at least now she wouldn't be disrespectful if she were to say the same. The last thing she wanted to do was to sound like she wasn't grateful for all of the help this man offered.

He put the meat that was skewered to a stick beside him and sighed. "I think I have some bread in my bag." He said as he grabbed his bag and pulled out the bread.

He split it into two, one was significantly larger than the other, he notably inspected both and made sure to give her the larger one.

She had enough of this treatment though. "No." She said plainly as she cut a small piece from the bread he handed to her and offered it to him. He opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off. "Take it."

He hesitantly took it and not long after that, the silence they were sitting in continued. Until he broke it again, that is.

"Elryd."

"Huh?" The King asked, confused.

"My name, I just realized I never said it. It's Elryd."

She smiled slightly, she never heard a name like that before. "Ar-"

Elryd cut her off before she could continue. "I know your name, my King... Arthur."

That was true, everyone knew the king's name, but not the true one, which is why she giggled. "No."

"No?" Yes, it made sense now, Arthur was just for show, she's a woman and was probably given a woman's name upon birth.

"Arturia."

"Well, my king." The man paused and took a deep breath. "You've asked me why I owe you, it probably doesn't mean much to you so I'll spare you the details."

"No, I want to hear everything." She said, it wasn't like they had much to do.

"Well, it was a few years ago, you had been a king for just over a year and..." The man's face grew more serious and it seemed like he was recalling memories that are best left to rest.

"I lived in a small village, we were on the outskirts of the kingdom and everything was going well for us, we had a good season and were about to harvest bountifully, the only problem was how I was the only capable man in the village, the rest were too young or too old."

He noticed that she was paying full attention, he also had no idea why she was so interested in a simple man like himself though he kept speaking.

"One night, I was out to hunt for me and my sister, she was the only family I had left. Normally we had enough food but winter was approaching and we needed to stock." He kept on speaking, Arturia's ears never losing focus on what he said.

"I still regret not being there when she needed me..." He dreaded the words as he said them. " The village was sacked, raided, and razed to the ground by a huge tribe of bandits." He said, her eyes widened as she started remembering vividly.

"My sister, she was pinned to the ground by those rascals, those damn Knaves." The king still paid full attention and her eyes widened even further as she realized what Elryd had meant.

"Thankfully though, that's as far as they could go with her..." He said, Arturia released the breath she didn't know she was holding. What horror that poor girl must have felt. Even if they couldn't go all the way with what they planned.

"It was you, my king. You had, by chance, been close to our village. My sister told me that you never hesitated for a second, even though you didn't have a company prepared to fight a whole tribe, you still saved our village and my sister, you gave the village gold for the repairs and left all the knights that were with you to protect it."

Yes, she recalled all of it now, the village on the outskirts, how she only had a small company of knights with her but still saved them, how she ordered all of those knights to stay and protect the village even though that meant that she, Bedivere and Merlin would have to journey back to Camelot by themselves. And needless to say, that put them in great danger.

One would say that she should be happy but she only found his logic vexing. "No, you do not owe me anything, Elryd." She explained, she soon continued. "It was I who owed your village, I owed them protection, just like how I owe it to all of the kingdom. It is simply my duty."

The man failed to reply immediately and gave the king enough time to add to her words. "You do not owe me anything, Elryd." She said, her seriousness was slowly getting replaced with a weak smile. "Though I have reasons to believe that you are helping me for more reasons than simply thinking that you owe me."

He still failed to reply to her words, he didn't really know how to reply to that because what she said was simply the truth, that said, he still didn't want to accept it, he felt gratitude towards her and that wasn't going to go away just because she said that it was her duty.

"There is potential in you, Elryd." She said out of nothing, his head moved to look at her. "You are helping me because you want to do it, gratitude and feeling in debt are two different things."

Honestly, was this how all kings spoke? He could do nothing but listen to her speak. It felt like she was reading his mind.

"For example, you feel gratitude upon receiving a gift but that doesn't mean you feel like you need to give the person a gift back, does it?"

She let out a sigh, but it wasn't an annoyed one, it was more like a sigh of satisfaction. "You'd make a fine knight, Elryd."

He stopped her there, he had enough philosophizing for one night. "Well, thank you but I think it is about time we slept."

Arturia nodded. "Yes, we need to rest for the journey tomorrow." She said as she wrapped her royal cloak around herself tightly.

"What journey?" The man asked. Arturia's eyes shot up in surprise.

"The journey back to Camelot." She said, wasn't it obvious?

"We can't go tomorrow, you're wounds are still not fully healed." The man shocked her with what he had to say, did he really think that she cared about her wounds when her kingdom was in danger?

"I can't stay here when I know those magus assassins are out there, who knows how many more of them there are and what kind of rumors they have already spread? Camelot might be in chaos as we speak now!" She said, trying her best to maintain her composure.

She continued before he spoke. "I apologize but I will be journeying to Camelot in the morning and that is final, you are free to do as you wish."

The man sighed but what could he do? He had no authority over the king. "Fine, I'll accompany you but we need to rest well tonight." He said. He had planned to stay up and guard so they can keep the fire lit to keep them warm. But now he had to sleep so he can be ready which meant extinguishing the fire as to not draw any unwanted visitors.

Arturia let out a faint titter as he started putting out the fire, she was right. He did have potential.

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 **I hope you enjoyed! (P.S Arturia can't swim because she didn't get Excaliber yet.)**

 ** _Much Love! Stay hopeful! ZilverHope Out!_**


	3. Chapter 3: Journey To Camelot

**Welcome back to A Knight's True Wish! I hope you enjoy this new chapter. Also, I hereby request more reviews to know exactly what people think of the story, this is kinda why I write stories so I'd love it if you could take a bit of your time to write what you think, thanks!**

 _ **A Knight's True Wish.**_

 _ **Chapter 3: Journey To Camelot**_

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Arturia was awakened by Elryd as the sun was rising, they had both slept early in the night so it wasn't hard to wake up, by the time the sun had fully risen, they were finished gathering their supplies and were already on their way back to Camelot.

Arturia had also finally figured out why Elryd looked slightly familiar, he was actually the man that came to Camelot and only wanted to see her, at first, she wanted to ask him why but decided to wait until they finish their journey.

"How's your leg? I know the path back to the city is harsh so tell me if we should rest." He said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"I'm doing fine, thank you for your concern." She answered as they continued moving through the narrow path between two mountains, one slip up would mean it is over.

At first, they were going to take the same route Arturia's company had moved in while traveling but decided against it upon realizing that it is probably swarming with assassins by now.

They continued carefully, Arturia's leg wound causing her more trouble than she would have liked.

Elryd had explained a few things to her before they set off on their journey, he had actually spied on the assassins for a while and could confirm that they didn't know any type of offensive magecraft, in fact, the only type of magic they could do was shapeshifting.

And that meant that they didn't have to worry about being shot down with any spell but would have to be extremely careful towards any stranger they might meet.

They finally made it through the narrow path between the mountains, now all that was separating them from safety was a forest, a big and vast one.

But of course, Arturia had entered it with haste, not allowing any more time to be wasted in case her kingdom needed her, she shut down the multiple offers to rest given by Elryd.

Her wound felt like it was on fire, she tried to take the pain and ignore it as best she could but sooner or later it would become obvious that she needs the rest.

And Elryd thought that sooner is better than later.

Arturia heard a thud as if something had hit the ground with force, she turned around to see that Elryd had dropped his bag on the ground and was looking at her, unamused.

"What is it?" She asked, she would have rathered to ask that question as they kept on walking.

"You're pushing yourself too hard, you're only a human, you need the rest." He said, damn, was it that clear that she was tired? She had thought that she had done a good job at hiding it.

"I'm not human, I'm the king, and I need t-"

"You're a human king!" He said with a hint of frustration in his voice. "And being a human comes before being a king, you can't take care of anyone if you're dead." He added, seemingly calmer now.

"I care for the well being of my people more than my own, and so I will not stop." She shot back as she turned around to keep moving.

But that frustrated Elryd even further, he walked up with pace and caught up to her, hand reaching to grab her shoulder.

But that's when they both heard it, if only barely.

His hand was halfway through the distance to reach her when she quickly turned around and pushed him to the ground. "Don't make a sound!" She whispered, he complied.

He focused on hearing and so he did hear, he heard the sounds of probably dozens of men.

Arturia slowly let go of him and they both laid silently on the ground, he started crawling silently towards the sounds until he spotted a party of men wearing the same black attire the assassins after Arturia were wearing.

The king's eyes widened as she spotted them as well, the bastards chose to camp in a place that they simply had to move through to get to Camelot, it was the only pathway since around it was a very steep hill, probably very hard to climb. It almost resembled the two mountains they had passed by on their way here.

"We can't turn back." Arturia whispered, the man nodded.

"I know, just let me think of something." He paused for a while, thinking carefully and playing through all the possible scenarios in his head before speaking again. "We have the element of surprise so if we attack them and startle them the fight could end before it starts."

The King Of Knights had been thinking the same thing, she nodded and checked on Caliburn, her sword was with her, ready for battle. "There aren't as many of them as there were before, if you shock them with your shooting I'll be able to move in quickly and fight them off." She said as she grabbed the handle of her sword, this time she was ready, they wouldn't be a match for her without the element of surprise they had before.

Elryd wielded his bow in his hand and checked on the knife strapped on his belt. "I'm ready, wait until I have their full attention." He said, Arturia nodded as her hand tightened around Caliburn.

He silently started moving through the plants while Arturia stayed and watched until her best moment to strike.

Elryd kept moving until he found a spot with a good angle to fire from, that's when he took the first arrow out of his quiver and carefully lined up the shot, he held his breath and his eyes glanced towards Arturia one last time before releasing the first shot.

It was hard for the King to keep up with how many assassins her companion killed, he was shooting with the speed of an eagle and the precision of a hawk.

And of course, it didn't take long for all of the assassins to turn towards the source of the shooting.

And that was all she needed.

With them so occupied trying to figure out where the arrows are coming from, she had an opportunity to strike, and so she did.

Elryd watched as she emerged from the trees, running towards the backs of the assassins and striking them one by one, he kept on shooting as fast as he can, if things kept going on like this they'll defeat the assassins easily.

He was sure to not let his guard down until every enemy in front of him was dead on the ground, not only were they numerous but he doubted the king could take them on alone with the wound in her leg.

And so he picked off the targets that were the most menacing to her, focusing on the ones trying to run up behind her or the ones trying to flank her.

A barely audible rustle in the leaves next to him revealed to him the naivety of his plan, he was so focused on picking off the targets that he forgot to watch his own flank.

His eyes were only hardly able to register the sword swing directed at him, his arm jerked forwards and he was barely able to push the sword away with his bow but sadly the string was caught up and snapped in the process.

In one second his hand was reaching for the knife strapped to his belt, in the other that same knife was stuck in the assassin's throat.

He grabbed the fallen assassin's sword and quickly ran up to the king. "What happened?!" She asked as she struck down another assassin.

Elryd replied as he barely dodged an incoming stab from an assassin before stabbing him in the back. "I was ambushed and lost my bow, we need to get out of this place as fast as we can!"

The two of them stood back to back as what felt like dozens of assassins came their way. They hadn't originally anticipated this many of them!

They continued to fight as hard as they could but it seemed like the wave of assassins would never end.

Elryd wanted to scream out of anger, they had three options.

One, try to run away but most likely be caught because they had been traveling for a while and were tired, and that wasn't even mentioning Arturia's wound.

Two, fight and be eventually killed by the never-ending waves of enemies.

Three... his last resort.

"Sorry about this but I've got no time to explain." She heard him say, she didn't have enough time to answer as Elryd suddenly pushed her to the ground.

She angrily turned around only to see him taking a very strange stance. He had his right arm stretched forward, his index finger pointing forward and his thumb upwards, his left hand had a tight grip around his right elbow.

"Gandr." Was the strange word she heard the man mutter. Before long she noticed the hint of a red color emerging from his finger before her eyes widened as she saw what he did.

It kept repeating one second after the other, small round projectiles emerged from his finger and flew towards the assassins before exploding in a chaotic fashion.

"Sorry about that, it's best you stay put for now, this is a very dangerous spell, I don't want to hit you by accident." He said, seemingly much calmer than before as he had the situation under control, no assassin was able to get even moderately close to them as he blew them all away.

"Watch out!" He heard Arturia yell before a sharp and sudden pain emerged from his shoulder. Within a second he found the king charging back into the fray as she held the remaining assassins off.

He looked at his shoulder and growled as he pulled out the knife he was struck with. Damn whoever threw it at him!

Though it only turned worse as he examined the knife, just as he expected, there was a green liquid covering it, he winced as he thought about how long it would take for this poison to kill him. He already lost full control of his right arm so it looked like he didn't have much time.

He ran up to the king as he used his left arm to shoot more gandr shots at the incoming assassins. "Which direction is Camelot, exactly?" He asked, confusing her, why ask such a question now?

"What difference would that make?!" She said as she struck down another opponent. She then pointed towards the direction she knew Camelot was in.

Elryd stopped the gandr shots as he put his hand on her shoulder. "The knife had poison on it, I won't make it out of here but you still could, I'll use what energy I have for a spell that can get us both out of here."

"No! If the guards in Camelot see you using a spell you'll be branded as a heretic and I won't be able to intervene, you'll die!" She said, his face looked irritated as she finished her words.

"I'll die anyway! Now grab my hand!" He demanded but the stubborn king ignored him as she continued to strike down the assassins, she didn't look like she would last much longer, only giving him more of a reason to do what he was about to do.

He focused all the remaining Prana he had and reinforced his legs, he used only a small amount of Prana on his working arm to grab the king by the waist and lift her up from the ground, the king let out a sound of surprise as he did so but didn't have enough time to protest as he started running.

The magic circuits in his legs glowed brightly as he let out all of his power and life force in one single dash towards the safety of Camelot.

It took all of Arturia's strength to no let go of her sword as she heard the horrifying and almost painful sound of Elryd crashing into tree after tree and rock after rock, but he never stopped. It sounded so painful but he still did not stop, he was covering most of her body with his own so she wouldn't have to endure the same pain.

"Stop! Slow down!" The King yelled to no avail for how could he hear her in a situation like this? He kept focusing on keeping his balance and absorbing the pain as best as he could.

In what felt like hours to Arturia but was actually merely a few minutes, they were out of the forest and she could see Camelot on the horizon, she looked upward to see his barely conscious face, his clothes were ripped and he looked half dead.

His body gave out before his spirit did as he fell to the ground while still dashing with incredible speed, both he and the king separated as she fell but her armor took a lot of the fall damage.

He, on the other hand, kept rolling on the ground for a few seconds as he was finally stopped by hitting one last tree.

He only managed to open his eyes for a few seconds, he spotted the safe walls of Camelot with his blurry vision as his mind started giving away. Soon, everything turned black.

...

He didn't exactly know what to make of it.

It wasn't an everyday occurrence when you are minding your own business and gathering herbs but get interrupted by your king and a stranger shooting out of a forest like an arrow.

He pushed his white hood away as he quickly ran up to Arturia, she was barely able to push herself off of the ground but she didn't look like she sustained any fatal injuries.

He quickly extended a helping hand and helped her to her feet, he also noticed the guards of the castle immediately storming out and making their way to the king.

Meanwhile, Arturia was relieved, she had been lucky enough to run into the best person for the situation she was in. "Merlin, how glad am I to see you." She said with her sore throat.

"Heile deine Wunden." The mage's hand glowed green as he said the incantation and healed Arturia wherever he could find a wound. "What on earth happened?" He said when he finished.

"There's no time to explain that, we need to help him." Arturia pointed towards Elryd. "He's the only reason I'm back here but..."

Merlin understood what she had meant, there was no way the guards keeping watch didn't see him moving with such unbelievable speed, it wouldn't take long for him to be branded as a heretic and be burned at the stake and while Arturia could prevent that it would severely tarnish her reputation.

"Can you stand?" Merlin asked, Arturia was quick to nod in response. "Then I'll go see what I can do." He said as he let go of her and started running towards the fallen man.

The guards were already surrounding the man as he finally reached him. "You, go tend to the king!" Merlin gave the order to one of the guards before pushing through their formation, he found two guards forcing the unconscious man to his feet.

"Easy, easy! Can't you see he's injured?!" The court mage said, the captain of the guards glared at him.

"That doesn't matter, he should be taken to the dungeon and prepared for execution, haven't you seen what he's capable of?"

Merlin forcefully grabbed the shoulder of the guard trying to pull the man away and then glanced at the captain. "All I can see now is that he's too weak to do anything."

Merlin's eyes then glanced back to see Arturia coming their way with the guard he ordered to tend to her. He needed to end this very quickly before Arturia could intervene or things will only go downhill.

"Now, as the court mage of Camelot, I demand you let go of my apprentice at once!" Merlin shouted, Arturia's eyes immediately widened and the guards turned to her, shocked.

"Is it true, my liege? Is he the court mage's apprentice?" The captain said, a heretic stray mage was one thing but the court mage and his apprentice were a whole other thing.

"Of course, do you think my court mage would lie?" Arturia pointed out, the captain then proceeded to order the release of the man.

"Escort him to the castle at once." Arturia ordered, the guards were quick to comply, she then turned towards Merlin as they both waited for the guards to leave. "Thank you, Merlin. But doesn't this put a lot of responsibility on you?" She said.

"Of course it does," He smiled at her. "But it seemed to me like this was important to do. Now come on, I need to see if I can heal him." He replied before he and Arturia followed after the guards.

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 **Can we get a round of applause for Merlin's new apprentice?**

 ** _Much Love! Stay Hopeful! ZilverHope Out!_**


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